Sonic Championship

"Why isn't this game in every arcade?"

Sonic Championship is a fun and addictive punching and kicking based arcade-fighting game made by none other than the people who have made Sonic Games for such a long time, Sega and Sonic Team. This game is definitely worth the coins and tokens you will spend on it. The game gives you excellent gameplay and very nice graphics. The sound is a tad bit annoying, but still very nice. The game also feature 8 different characters to choose from with many different attacks. You’ll be seeing this in your local arcades for a long time to come.

Story- 9/10- The story is based on the fighting must do in each of 8 rounds. In each of those 8 rounds, you must win in order to collect the Chaos Emeralds in order to advance. These fights range from the ridiculous easily Knuckles to the grand daddy Polar Bear, Fang, to the everyone’s favorite hedgehog, Sonic. The emeralds will enable you to travel to the Death Egg, where you face more battles. The story of the game gets in 9, not a lot of depth but I like it personally. This makes me wish it was available on a console.

Graphics- 9/10- The graphics in this game are very, very nice. The character designs are the only downsides that appear to have just a few too many polygons going for it. But other than that, the graphics are very nice. The arenas are designed to look like wrestling rings. The rings all look different and range from the Casino Night arena with all of its Las Vegas like lights to the Dynamite Factory one with its big dynamite factory in the background. That brings me to say that all of the backgrounds are excellently designed and presented. The characters do look a bit odd, but are excellently design outsider of the polygon like looks, and very nicely colored. I rate the graphics a 9. Excellent ring environments and color raise make this a very nice game that is pleasing to look at. My eyes can’t get enough of it.

Sound- 7.5/10

Sound Effects -10/10- The sound is very good. The sound effects in this game sound are pleasing like delicate wind chimes. Ok, so fighting isn’t supposed to be delicate. It’s a comparison. Anyway, the fighting effects are very good. I love the old school ring losing sound effects. The move effects are good. Especially, the green birdie’s pecking effect. The sound effects receive a ten while balancing old and new Sonic sound effects.

Music- 5/10- The music in the game is very good. But the reason this is lowered is due to the fact there is only two different types of music. And the fact, that is gets very annoying and shows a lot of repetition. The theme that plays when you select the characters and lose the game is very pleasing, but will get very annoying and very repetitive over time. The music that plays when fighting is, again, very pleasing, but will get, yet again, very annoying and repetitive. The music receives a five. The lowest aspect of the game is merely the only major flaw I found while playing Sonic Championship.

Gameplay- 10/10- The gameplay of this game is stupendously excellent. It only has two modes, but is the best two modes that I have every played. The first mode is Versus Mode which allows you to play against another person. It is a lot like the other mode, Single Player Mode aka. Story Mode, but it is made for two people. Story Mode is a single player style mode which allows you to fight for the 8 Emeralds needed I order to get to the Death Egg.

The characters in this game all usually have different attack styles. The only exception would be the basic punching and kicking. All characters all have trademark attacks such as Fang with his Popgun technique or Amy with her hammer. Even Sonic shows some of his classic spinning techniques and his immense speed. The controls are also fairly simple. You have three buttons, Punch, Kick , Barrier, and a joystick. Punching and Kicking are self-explanatory. Barrier allows you to cast a shield that can be broken unfortunately.

The amazing gameplay of the game deserves a 10, hands down.

Replay Value- 10/10- I don’t know about you, but I think this game deserves more extra tries than one.

Should I spend my coins on it? – Yes- Go ahead. You’ll enjoy it.

Pros
-Excellent Gameplay
-Excellent Sound Effects
-Excellent Graphics
-Worth every try and token
Cons
-Repetitive Music
-Characters look like something that came from polygon hell.

Overall- 9.1
GameFAQS Score- 9/10- Worth every token. Sonic will rock the arcade all night long.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/11/02, Updated 07/26/03